Lack of window alarms enabled New Bedford nursing home jumper

NEW BEDFORD — The daughter of a woman suffering from dementia who jumped from a second-story nursing home window last weekend is adding details to the home's version of events.

STEVE URBON

NEW BEDFORD — The daughter of a woman suffering from dementia who jumped from a second-story nursing home window last weekend is adding details to the home's version of events.

Julieta Dalzell told The Standard-Times that she and her sister arrived for a visit just after lunch Saturday at the Savoy Nursing and Rehab Center on County Street only to find their mother missing from her locked-down room. Police and the home had attributed the missing mother's discovery to a nurse's aide.

Administrator Derek Leblanc said Wednesday that shortly before the daughters arrived, the patient had been directed to the dining room after wandering into another patient's room but apparently wandered away within minutes and was not there when her daughters arrived.

Dalzell said the family was surprised to learn there were no window alarms.

"When we brought our mom they told us there were alarms on the windows," she said.

Leblanc has confirmed there were no alarms.

Window alarms are not required by state law in nursing facilities, according to the state Department of Public Health, which was investigating Wednesday.

Dalzell said that while she was upstairs and the staff was busy searching the building, a fire truck arrived and her sister ran out to see why it was there. "She thought my mother had been hit by a car," Dalzell said.

The mother had a history of wandering away, according to the home and the family.

Leblanc said the two nurses who discovered the patient lying on the sidewalk called 911 and brought blankets to her. It was about that time that Dalzell's sister saw the fire truck outside and went to see what had happened, fearing her mother had been hit by a car. It was she who noticed the open window above.

The staff then checked the room and found it in disarray, Dalzell said.

The woman's injuries are different than described by police in the initial reports. The woman did not have a broken hip and leg but rather a broken neck, back (in two places) and ribs.

She is in stable and sedated condition at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence and faces a long recovery, Dalzell said.

The earlier description was based on the early examination by the staff, Leblanc said.

"I'm not blaming the staff," Dalzell said. "I'm blaming the facility" for not having window alarms.